Amalfi Coast: Pure Tourism at its Best

So as a previous post will tell you, the first weekend of the trip we students organized a group trip to Florence, and had some difficulties with the “organized” part. Immediately afterwards, concluding that group travel organization is best left to professionals, we found a company that specializes in student weekend trips, and booked a trip to the Amalfi coast, (if, like me, your Italian geography is rather shaky, Amalfi is in the south, near Naples) for the weekend of the 14th of July.

The bus picked us up on Thursday night, after a truly delightful program dinner (The director of IES was visiting from Seattle, and we had dinner with the faculty, who are amazing, fun people). The bus was mostly filled with students from Florence, so we dispersed ourselves through the empty seats. The students around me were quite drunk, and passing around a bottle of vodka, which led to the personal realization (probably long overdue) that I can be quite judgmental of people I don’t know (self discovery in Europe for the win?). I decided that, since we’d be arriving in Sorento very late, I should skip the party and get some sleep. I dozed on and off until about 3, when we finally reached Sorento and our hostels, for a real sleep.

Friday morning we rose horribly early and walked down to the docks, where a boat was waiting to take us to Capri. I fell asleep almost immediately, and awoke shortly before arrival, to discover that, due to slightly heavy seas, many of the other passengers were seasick. Ick.

Fortunately, a few minutes later we docked on Capri and got off the boat, immediately shepherded onto another boat for a visual tour of the island

Capri is gorgeous. GORGEOUS. There are no beaches to speak of. Instead, it is mountainous, with green slopes topping white cliffs dropping into the ocean, with natural grottoes and arches forming between sea stacks and lookout points. I took as many pictures as I could, while trying to avoid falling into the aforementioned heavy seas.

We landed, already in a much better mood, and climbed a very steep hill to the main town of Capri, where we toured a garden, mostly remarkable for its views of the ocean. We took many more pictures, before continuing by shuttle to the second town of Anacapri, where we tasted Limoncello (not my favorite), admired the custom shoe shop (where you could, for more than I was willing to pay, have custom sandals made before your eyes), and were set free for lunch (very satisfying pizza). My new European guidebook informs me that Capri is a tourist trap and a zoo in summer, but I had an amazing day. Though indisputably packed with tourists, the island was completely undemanding, and tourists or no tourists, the view was spectacular.

Capri is, as I mentioned, a very mountainous place. There is a chairlift to the top of the tallest mountain, which, now in a group of about 8 people (I’m not sure where the rest of everyone went), we decided to ride. This may have been my favorite thing of the weekend. Its one of my favorite things we did for the entire program. It was a tiny adorable single-seater (which was surprisingly difficult to get on without skis) that made its slow way up the mountain. The views were absolutely stunning, and the ride was so utterly relaxing. It was wonderful. Also wonderful was the fortress at the top, where there were more views, and a patio with chairs and umbrellas, where we hung out, and a bar, which we did not patronize, due to its near double prices on everything (perks of a captive market I suppose).

As the afternoon drew to a close, we made our way back down the mountain by chairlift (still awesome), and roofless cab (also awesome), with a bit of light shopping on the way. A boat took us back to Sorento, and we arrived back at our hostels with a few hours to spare before dinner.

After much needed showers and relaxation, the tour was gathered together (to provide scale, we were about 100 people) and was shepherded to a restaurant, which we promptly overwhelmed. Service was understandably struggling, but the food was good (I had mussels, which were simply, and very well done, with staggeringly huge lemons). Dinner was followed by a trip to a nearby English bar, which had a very cool outdoor garden and dance floor. Dancing was fun, and the music was good, but this was also a second education in the determination of the Italian creeper.

Italian men (or in this case boys) appear to be really bad at taking no for an answer. They swarmed around us like locusts, a constant, stubborn, eagerly waiting presence, although at 17 I doubt even they knew precisely what they were waiting for. European men and boys are highly romanticized, but I will say this for Americans: on the rare occasion that you actually have to shout “GO AWAY”, it is unlikely that they will be back five minutes later.
Despite the locusts, we had a fun evening of dancing, and collapsed home, after a slightly creepy walk, satisfyingly exhausted.

The next morning we boarded a shuttle to the nearby town of Positano, which is essentially tourist shops built into a hillside, with a beach. After a long walk down through town, with really lovely views, we spent the morning beaching, alternating between swimming and sunning, and trying to protect ourselves from the burning sand as much as possible. We got Paninis at a deli, where the cashier complimented my Italian (yay!).

In the afternoon, the trip had organized for a boat ride along the coast, with college student appealing activities. Firstly they took us to a small cove beach, where we went cliff jumping (so fun!). Next we found caves in the shore cliffs, and went swimming in them. I was less initially excited about this one, but it was really cool, especially since the tides rushing in and out would tangibly move us through the cave. Afterwards we climbed out and relaxed on the rocks at the base of the cliffs, before getting back on the boat for a sunny, beautiful ride back to the beach, where I fell asleep and got a sunburn (I can be really smart like that sometimes).
The evening was not particularly remarkable; we ate in the hostel restaurant and hung out at the hostel rooftop bar. I think I’d gotten too much sun, because I almost fell asleep on the bar couch. The view was nice though.

Sunday was the last day of our trip, and the only remotely educational event. We went to Pompeii.

I’d heard about Pompeii for years, so I was completely prepared for a day spent touring, and hearing about roman life from our tour guide. There was a great deal of that, but Pompeii, as it turns out, isn’t just educational: It’s beautiful. Built on a hilltop, the dilapidated ruins stand against a gorgeous blue sky, and architecture ranging from old to really old shows unexpectedly lovely columns and mosaics. Our guide took us through town, from markets to houses to bakeries to bars, and was wonderfully informative without being verbose. We spent several hours in the city before, now hungry and footsore, heading out of the ruin, in pursuit of Neapolitan pizza (Naples is the birthplace of Pizza, so in the eyes of Italians, the best). I’ve gotten conflicting responses as to whether Pompeii pizza is actual Neapolitan Pizza, but as I’ve been informed that mobsters would kill me if I actually went to Naples, I’m accepting it as my Pizza birthplace experience.

In the afternoon we returned home: sunburned, satisfied, slightly less judgmental (in my case), and very very glad to be back.

Daily Updates!

So... I'm about a month behind in posts.
There's a lot I have to tell you guys, and I'm in the process of writing it all out. I should have a lot of it done by tomorrow actually.
However, I think it would be nice to have a slightly more efficient way of telling y'all what I'm up to, especially now that I'm on the rambling part of my journey (I left Siena this morning, slowly making my way to Edinburgh) so: there will be daily status updates on Facebook, and possibly pictures. For full stories, check here of course, but Facebook will be more up to date

"you can probably study abroad anywhere... except Bevagna"

Blogging again! (I’m on the train to France, so I figured I’d catch up)

July 7th and 8th (So quite a while ago) we had our last group cultural trip, and the only one outside of Tuscany. We went to Perugia, the capital city of the neighboring Umbria region. It wasn't quite as intensive of a cultural experience, but still very enjoyable.

We arrived in Perugia on Wednesday, and spent that morning touring the city with our umbrian guide, Alessandro. We saw many old buildings, from both the roman and etruscan periods. Much admiration of fortresses and churches, and the views are beautiful! Like Siena, Perugia is built on a hill, so there are places where you can see the whole valley. It was a very relaxing tour, not only because we had a good guide, but also because the streets in Perugia are about twice as wide as the streets in Siena. It’s amazing what a difference the visual space made in the feel of the city.

After the tour, we visited a bakery that had been active since the mid 1800’s and enjoyed tiny fruit tarts before lunching at a restaurant that clearly wasn’t prepared to handle a party of out size.

In the afternoon, we boarded an ungodly hot bus to visit the small neighboring town of Bevagna. Bevagna is home to a medieval crafts fair, so we toured the workshops and saw silk spinning, wood painting, candle making, papermaking and an apothecary, where the traditional manufacturing techniques are preserved. It was very interesting, but I was so tired that I almost fell asleep at one or two points. Bevagna is in general a sleepy town: we saw very few people.

At night, we set out to explore the city. We found dinner that was passable, but not the best. The best thing about the night was probably the street performers. There was a jazz festival for the next day, and the streets were filled with buskers, from jazz to juggling to a clown who made up for a lack of skill with a loud and slightly abrasive personality. We had a lot of fun just walking through the streets and people-watching, before finishing out the night in a bar overlooking the valley.

The next morning we boarded another bus to Assisi, to see St. Francis’s Basilica, and the church of St. Clare. Since it was Sunday, we could hear the worship service as we went through the tour. We saw a great many frescos, and our guide gave excellent perspective and information on the things we saw. I spent a lot of time on this trip wondering how he knew so much, because he took us everywhere, and seemed to know a great deal about everywhere we went. The basilica was gorgeous, and somewhat ironic, given that St. Francis preached poverty for monks. I’m somewhat fascinated by Catholicism, so I had a really good time.

A lesson from the trip as a whole: forget diamonds, frescoes are forever.

Following a very pleasant lunch, and another deathly hot bus ride, we arrived at our final cultural trip destination: the Perugina chocolate factory. YUM!! If you’ve ever had a Baccio, this is where they are made. We took a production tour (not hugely exciting), and tasted the many free product samples (really really exciting). We were then presented with free gifts (crunch bars, so kind of exciting), and packed onto the bus home to Siena, for what was probably my laziest weekend of the entire trip.

Palio!

It's been a week since then, and the Oca are still parading around. It was quite the experience: a truly exceptional night.

A little context:
Siena is divided into 17 districts, which were used as military divisions(each providing its own soldiers) back in the days when Siena was a republic and constantly at war with Florence. These districts are called contrade, and they are still very much a part of Sienese life. No longer military divisions, now they are kind of like a really beefed up neighborhood organization, each with it's own social life, cultural events, and proud history. You may remember from my first post that we visited a contrada headquarters on our first tour of the city.

The main events of theyear in every Sienese life are the two

Palio horse races: one on July 2nd, and one on August 16th. These have happened every year since the 1600s (canceled only for a couple of years during WWII). They are religious events, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and a source of great pride to the contrade. The horses race three times around the main square of the city, and whichever horse comes in first (regardless of whether its rider is still mounted) wins the Palio for its contrada. The Palio is a giant painted banner, with a depiction of the virgin on it. There is no second place in the Palio, only the champion, and the losers.

We'd been seeing signs of the impending event for weeks, as the Piazza (main square) was modified to be suitable for horse racing. Bleachers were put up, and a railing around the central section where people would stand. The outer perimeter was covered in a layer of dirt, to turn it into a racetrack. Starting on Monday, they brought the horses in every morning at 5, to ride them on the track, and get them used to it (it's not your standard racetrack, being surrounded by high buildings, and not completely round). We went to see the horses on Tuesday, along with many of the Sienese (I don't think I can stress how big a deal this is to the Sienese. Imagine the homecoming football game in a really football-centric area, combined with 500ish years of tradition). 5 AM is really really early, and I fell asleep in the bleachers, while we watched the horses go 'round and 'round.

I think the parades started on Tuesday. Drummers and flag-bearers from the participating contrade walk through the city in full costume, playing and singing (the winning contrada is still doing this). About this time, the contrade alsostarted doing enormous dinners for all of their m

embers, and everyone was putting out contrada flags and wearing contrada scarves.

Wednesday was the choosing of the horses. They are chosen, with much pomp and ceremony, by lottery. Once chosen, a horse cannot be changed for any reason, and, as having a good horse is essential to winning, it's a very exciting and nerve wracking moment for the contrada members. My roommate went, and she says she saw little children praying in groups, hoping to get the good horse. A fight also broke out between two rival contradas. I'm told this is completely normal, and in fact that someone goes to the hospital every Palio. I missed this particular ceremony, but, as I was walking back to class, I saw the Istrice contrada leading the horse into their territory. The horse was lead by two priests, and followed by most of the contrada (maybe two hundred or more, I'm not sure) singing at the top of their lungs. It was a very cool sight.

The week progressed with growing excitement, the contrade becoming more and more visible every day. I caved and bought a scarf from the Istrice (crested porcupine) contrada, to wear on the day of the race.

We had been told three things about the Palio: we would be standing in the middle, we wouldn't be able to see anything, and once we got into the stadium, we would not be allowed out. Still, determined to see everything, we decided to get to the Piazza early. The city was insane, filled with people, and parades and drummers and singers everywhere. We got into the Piazza around three (the parade was due to enter at 5:30, and the actual race would be around 8), and promptly noticed a significant difference between Italy and the states: despite the fact that it's arguably the most important day of the year, almost no one had arrived early to guarantee a seat. We socialized, and watched the Piazza slowly fill with people. It quickly became clear that "getting a good seat" was kind of an illusion, since the Piazza is shaped like a bowl, so there are no particularly good vantage points. I may have lost a year off my life at that point from cigarette smoke, as I think about 1 in 4 of the people around us were smoking. Not cool.

The parade was cool though. dozens of people from every contrada in traditional costume, with horses, flags, banners, and drums. Admittedly, we couldn't see most of it, but what we could see was cool. I'm told that the parade is a reenactment of/tribute to a battle between Siena and Florence in the 13th century that Siena won (hence the reenactment). Either way, cool costumes.

This Palio was a bit controversial, due to a sad event the day before the race: During one of the Friday practice runs, a horse tripped and fell, breaking its legs and going into shock, dying before they could get it out of the arena. The citizens were sad, and that contrada couldn't run (no replacing of horses), and the minister of tourism, who is an animal rights activist, wanted the city to cancel the Palio. They haven't canceled since World War II, and they didn't on this occasion, but there was a fair bit of argument and discussion. I've concluded that this sort of thing wouldn't fly in the States (aside from the dead horse this year, you have a huge laundry list of past injuries, riders get hurt all the time, it's just really really unsafe), and you could never start one from scratch in the present day, but it's hard to cancel something that's been the biggest day of the year since 1656.

After two hours of parades, the Piazza was full. Not as crowed as I expected, but you still had to push past people if you wanted to move, and given my height, rather difficult to see what was going on. But, as my italian teacher so aptly put it "watching on TV, you see with your eyes. In the Piazza, you see with your heart". The air was full of excited voices. It was at this point that the doors of the Palazzo opened, and the horses crossed to the starting line.

At this point, the entire Piazza went completely silent. Traditionally the jockeys bribe each other to try to get an advantage in the race ("if you let me pass you in the first round, I'll give you $50,000" kind of thing), and this is the point when those deals are confirmed. It's also the moment when the starting placements for the horses are announced. These are both important things for the enthusiasts to hear, so there is the sound of the crowd collectively shushing their neighbors, and then the thick silence of thousands of people not breathing. It was a tense moment. The starting order was read to perfect silence, the horses assumed their positions, and after one false start, the race began and everyone was screaming. I was surrounded by a group of people from Oca (the goose contrada), screaming things I couldn't understand. The horses thundered by at breakneck speeds, crashing into each other and the barriers, careening around corners. Several riders fell off (the Palio is one of a very few races where a horse can win without a rider). In a heartbeat it was over. Oca had pulled ahead and crossed the finish line first. Everything was chaos. The people next to me were jumping up and down, grabbing each other and crying. people poured out of the central stadium to chase after the horse and rider. The Palio was brought out, and the parade began, full of flags and shouting and crying, to carry it to the church, where it would be blessed.

We went for dinner at an irish pub with delicious burgers and terrible service, and then on to explore the city. Even well past midnight, the streets were full of people: children with funny light up toys, groups of adults and teenagers wandering together, Drunken Sienese with drums, flags, sometimes miniature parades with singing, everywhere. When we left at 3AM, the city center had yet to calm down, and we ran into several parades on the way back. Since then, Oca has been parading around constantly, and mocking their enemy contrada (tower). Preparations are now starting for the second Palio of the summer, which I'm sad to say I'll miss.

It was quite the experience.

Pisa and Lucca: Lovely Day

Wow. This past week has been crazy, and I have a lot to write about. I’m dividing it between a bunch of posts; this one is for Friday.

We don’t have classes on Fridays. This is great because it gives us more opportunities to travel on the weekends. Last weekend, as I said, we went to Florence. This weekend is the Palio (a giant inter-contrada horserace that has been going on for the past 500ish years, I’ll go into detail in the next post), so we were all staying in town. However, we decided to take a day trip to nearby Pisa and Lucca.

This may be my favorite thing we’ve done so far. We only traveled with about half the program (my housemates and five other girls), and the group was relaxed, happy, and completely willing to go with the flow. We swapped stories on the train, mostly about our childhoods, but also past travels, our families, and our friends from home. We caught a connecting train in Empoli, and got off in Pisa. The next train to Lucca wasn’t for another two hours, so we went in search of the leaning tower.

Others of the group, having done this trip on the first weekend, had informed us that Pisa was sketchy and a walk through, with the leaning tower the only think worth seeing. Most of my travel companions deemed in “janky”. I loved it. I’m not sure why, there was just an extremely pleasant feeling in the air. It was relaxing and exciting at the same time. I wish I could have spent more time there

We made our way across the city and found the leaning tower, which was much smaller and felt much closer than I expected. Maybe it was the quality of the air, but it seemed like I could pick it up like a toy (I couldn’t of course, but it was about half the height I expected). I thought it was charming. After taking the standard tourist optical illusion pictures, we made our way back to the train station, to continue on to Lucca.

Lucca is a small walled town in the north of Tuscany, and absolutely beautiful. The landscaping reminded me of the chateaus I saw when I was in France, or something out of a Jane Austen novel: quietly elegant and graceful, and very human. It was a cloudy day, and cool (thank goodness. It’s been so hot lately I can barely function) with a light wind. We rented bikes and rode them around the top of the wall. It was SO FUN! we were all shouting and laughing in our excitement. The top of the wall is a sort of park, with a well kept walk/bikeway, lined on both sides with trees. It was so pretty, and from it we could see most of the city. It didn’t feel as old as Siena, or quite as Italian (it had a feel I generally associate with England and France), but it was absolutely lovely. We kept stopping to take pictures. On a whole, I think it’s the best 3 euro I’ve spent so far.

After returning the bikes, we got lunch at a small restaurant in a square, where we found excellent eggplant parmesan, and the first risotto of the trip. Lunch was followed by desert at a patisserie, and general wanderings about the city. Minor shopping was done, along with much sightseeing, and when the time came to go back to the train station, we realized we had no idea where we were. We ended up going out the wrong gate, walked halfway around the city, and almost missed our train home. It was definitely an adventure, but the group remained in good spirits.

All in all, it was a completely delightful adventure, and one I would definitely recommend to anyone traveling in Tuscany.